Publications

October 2009
Teaching Note

Global Health Partner: Obesity Care

By: Michael E. Porter, Zayed Muhammed Yasin and Jennifer F Baron

Teaching Note for [709494]. View Details

Keywords: Value; Quality; Performance Improvement; Competitive Advantage; System; Private Ownership; Medical Specialties; Integration; Health Industry; Sweden

September 2023
Supplement

Fighting the Battle of the Bulge—Evaluating Do Good/Do Well Innovations in Morbid Obesity Treatment

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

This PowerPoint accompanies Regina E. Herzlinger's "Fighting the Battle of the Bulge – Evaluating Do Good/Do Well Innovations in Morbid Obesity Treatment" teaching note (HBS Case No.324-013) and is designed for instructors to use in the classroom when teaching this... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Delivery; Obesity; Weight Loss; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Health Industry

15 Aug 2019
News

Finding a Fix for Food Allergies

after eating prepared food cooked in a cross-contaminated pan. The couple cofounded End Allergies Together (EAT) to advance scientific and medical research in order to find treatments and cures. Among EAT’s founding principles is a... View Details

2009
Working Paper

Input Constraints and the Efficiency of Entry: Lessons from Cardiac Surgery

By: David M. Cutler, Robert S. Huckman and Jonathan T. Kolstad

Prior studies suggest that, with elastically supplied inputs, free entry may lead to an inefficiently high number of firms in equilibrium. Under input scarcity, however, the welfare loss from free entry is reduced. Further, free entry may increase use of high-quality... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Market Entry and Exit; Welfare; Health Industry; Pennsylvania

Read Now

August 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

NOW PT (A): Should We Invest?

By: George A Riedel, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin

In fall 2021, a team of students from the HBS Impact Investing Fund considered Neurologic Optimal Wellness Physical Therapy (NOW PT) for a potential investment. Dr. Banks, the founder of NOW PT, drove to visit patients. She sought an investment from the fund to open a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Buildings and Facilities; Health Industry; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States; Massachusetts

2012
Working Paper

The Need for (long) Chains in Kidney Exchange

By: Itai Ashlagi, David Gamarnik, Michael A. Rees and Alvin E. Roth

It has been previously shown that for sufficiently large pools of patient-donor pairs, (almost) efficient kidney exchange can be achieved by using at most 3-way cycles, i.e., by using cycles among no more than 3 patient-donor pairs. However, as kidney exchange has... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Complexity; Performance Efficiency; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

Read Now

October 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

The Joslin Diabetes Center

By: Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg and Scott Wallace

The Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts is a leading center for diabetes care, clinician training, and research. The incidence of diabetes is rising precipitously worldwide, challenging quality of life with its complications and rapidly accelerating health... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Service Delivery; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Outcome or Result; Corporate Finance; Health Industry; Boston

05 Aug 2016
News

Accelerating Change on Medicine’s Final Frontier

Brain cancer is almost always fatal. There are no cures for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or ALS. And mental health remains a global burden.” Worse yet, despite all of medical science’s efforts, most of... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley

01 Mar 2017
News

How Deep Brain Stimulation Could Change Medicine

engineers to tweak preexisting medical instruments or develop entirely new medical devices. The general deep brain stimulation procedure is now established practice: For over a decade, neurosurgeons have... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos

25 Aug 2014
News

The First Five Years: Raymond Hwang (MBA 2010)

everyone is a surgical candidate. This is perhaps the most difficult message to convey.” Why was having both an MD [Hwang graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2003] and an MBA from HBS important to you? “Well, the MD helped me get... View Details

Keywords: Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

October 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Salick Cardiovascular Centers: Business Plan

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Kaushik Sen, Alex Tkachenko and Carolyn Wolff

A seasoned health services entrepreneur develops a business plan for a cardiovascular-focused factory. Will it work? View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Plan; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Medical Specialties; Health Industry

May 2007 (Revised July 2011)
Case

The West German Headache Center: Integrated Migraine Care

By: Michael E. Porter, Clemens Guth and Elisa M. Dannemiller

Describes the joint efforts of the German health plan KKH and Essen University Hospital to develop an integrated practice unit (IPU), and the West German Headache Center's efforts to improve the quality of migraine care. Provides an overview of the German health care... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Industry Structures; Service Delivery; Integration; Health Industry; Germany

November 2013
Article

Learning from My Successes and from Others' Failures: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

By: D. KC, B. Staats and F. Gino

Learning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. While empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Health Care; Knowledge Work; Attribution Theory; Quality; Success; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Failure; Learning; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

December 2009 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center: Breast Cancer Care in Taiwan

By: Michael E. Porter, Jennifer F Baron and C. Jason Wang

Taiwan's Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center has developed an integrated, team-based care delivery model for breast cancer care that is being expanded to other cancer types in 2009. A decade earlier, President and CEO Dr. Andrew Huang and the Center had worked... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Quality; Integration; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; Taiwan

February 2010
Article

Input Constraints and the Efficiency of Entry: Lessons from Cardiac Surgery

By: David M. Cutler, Robert S. Huckman and Jonathan T. Kolstad

Prior studies suggest that, with elastically supplied inputs, free entry may lead to an inefficiently high number of firms in equilibrium. Under input scarcity, however, the welfare loss from free entry is reduced. Further, free entry may increase use of high-quality... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Market Entry and Exit; Welfare; Health Industry; Pennsylvania

Find at Harvard

Read Now

March 2008
Case

The Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Alfred Martin

The Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta wishes to expand beyond Georgia. The factors influencing this decision are discussed, including drug treatments currently available, and the impact of future drugs in the FDA pipeline as well as financing issues. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Expansion; Health Industry; Atlanta